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National Geographic : 1897 Sep
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THE UNMAPPED AREAS ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE 261 exigencies to interfere with what is really a work of national importance. CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA It is when we come to Central and South America that we find ample room for the unofficial explorer. In Mexico and the Cen tral American States there are considerable areas of which we have little or only the vaguest knowledge. In South America there is really more room now for the pioneer explorer than there is in Central Africa. In recent years the Argentine Repub lic has shown laudable zeal in exploring and mapping its im mense territories, while a certain amount of good work has also been done by Brazil and Chile. Most of our knowledge of South America is due to the enterprise of Europeans and of North Amer ican explorers. Along the great river courses our knowledge is fairly satisfactory, but the immense areas, often densely clad with forests, lying between the rivers are almost unknown. In Pata gonia, though a good deal has recently been done by the Argen tine government, still in the country between Punta Arenas and the Rio Negro we have much to learn, while on the West Coast range, with its innumerable fjord-like inlets, its islands and peninsulas, there is a fine field for the geologist and physical geographer. Indeed, throughout the whole range of the Andes systematic exploration is wanted, exploration of the character of the excellent work accomplished by Whymper in the region around Chimborazo. There is an enormous area lying to the east of the northern Andes and including their eastern slopes, embracing the eastern half of Ecuador and Colombia, southern Venezuela, and much of the country lying between that and northern Bolivia, includ ing many of the upper tributaries of the Amazon and Orinoco, of which our knowledge is of the scantiest. Even the country lying between the Rio Negro and the Atlantic is but little known. There are other great areas in Brazil and in the northern Chaco which have only been partially described, such as the region whence the streams forming the Tapajos and the Paraguay take their rise, in Mato Grosso. A survey and detailed geographical and topographical description of the whole basin of Lake Titi caca is a desideratum. In short, in South America there is a wider and richer field for exploration than in any other continent. But no mere rush through these little-known regions will suffice. The explorer
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